Foreboding Predicaments
by Insanity Ignited
Summary: Forty seconds later, he was still alive. Light Yagami wasn't sure of anything anymore, but Kaneki Ken had to be a human... Right?
1. Chapter 1

Kaneki Ken was really something else.

It wasn't just his abnormal white hair and intense yet glassy grey-eyed stare- those features have excuses.

But that wasn't it.

The dark and spine-chilling aura that surrounded Kaneki didn't have an excuse- or rather, an explanation. It was just _there_. It was obvious something was up with the guy, but what shook Light was that he couldn't figure it out. The white-haired man had entered To-Oh University as a second year with one of the highest scores in his entrance exams. Although he was nowhere as close as Light in academics or social life, he had still managed to disturb the brunet genius.

For one, his mysterious ways were apparently found attractive and he didn't lack a hoard of fangirls. That point didn't bug Light too much, but the fact that he refused to acknowledge them certainly did. He never seemed to make friends with people (or maybe it was just that everyone who didn't fangirl over him found him scary) and he was always very distant. In his free time he would sit alone on one of the benches with a book and a cup of coffee, shut up in his own world. No one had ever really seen him give a proper smile, but very rarely some people spotted him sporting a small yet sad smile on his face while he was zoning out. On a closer inspection, it was also seen that Kaneki had unnaturally _black_ nails. People sometimes lightheartedly argued over whether he painted them or if they were somehow just natural (like his hair), but no one cared enough to ever just ask Kaneki himself.

Or maybe no one dared to.

Light had yet to approach Kaneki, but the teen's interest was certainly piqued. If he were not busy with handling both being on the Kira investigation team _and_ being Kira himself, he wouldn't have minded hanging out with the white-haired boy.

The Kira case was sluggish for now, and he had thought of mentioning Kaneki to Ryuuzaki, but he deemed it unnecessary for the time being.

Because even with his threatening and dark aura, Kaneki just had to be human, right?

* * *

 **This is basically just a compilation of drabbles labeled as chapters. This 'story' does have a plot, but don't expect long and intensely detailed chapters with sufficient amounts of dialogue and conversation. As I said before, this 'story' is just drabbles grouped up together to create a plot, and hopefully keep you mildly entertained when you're either too lazy to drag your eyes through 3,000 words or when you want to read something lighthearted just to suffice your reading habits for a little while. Whichever it is, even if you're a third kind of reader, thank you for reading anyway.**


	2. Chapter 2

Light had a good memory.

His brilliant memory was an asset to his genius mind. It could even have been referred to as photographic. Of course, memory is important in not only academics, but also everyday life. And considering his everyday life was being a serial killer who was being hunted down by the century's greatest anonymous detective, a healthy memory was a necessity. He rarely ever questioned it, seeing as it had almost never failed him in the past. Except the past was now gone, and for the first time since he found the book and decided to use it, Light Yagami wondered if the Death Note had caused him to either become careless, or give him hallucinations of some kind.

Kaneki Ken had a tear slipping down his face.

Sure, he was probably a good seven meters away from the snowy-haired teen, but he was certain that he had seen a _red_ tear (which oddly resembled blood) seep out of the corner of Kaneki's left eye. If only he had kept his sight on him for a little longer, he could have arrived to some sort of conclusion. Unfortunately, Ryuzaki was sitting right there on the bench in front of him. The subconscious part of his mind decided to stick to what was in front of him instead of turning his head to observe the person left behind him.

He regretted it. As soon, as he did a double take and faced back towards Kaneki, the tear was gone- without leaving a stain behind. The other man was just sitting there with a book in his hands and a cup of coffee at his side (he would have seemed almost abnormal without either of them). He looked pleasant, stoic, yet deep in thought at the same time, just like he always did. It had been too quick for him to wipe the tear away himself, too.

Thus Light was left with nothing but the conclusion that he had been hallucinating. He couldn't begin to doubt his memory now- especially not in such a crucial time. Besides, not even a single expression could ever stain the pristine face of the other man, let alone a tear drop. Yes, it was probably just a simple hallucination. That's all. Tears of blood? It was just a tad bit too unrealistic. Then again, so were shinigamis and notebooks of death. Light happened to be an empiricist. And he knew for a fact that the quiet, grey-eyed, distant man was nothing more than a little shut off.

Because even though he seemed to be completely devoid of emotion, Kaneki Ken just had to be human.

* * *

 **The last chapter takes place between episode 9 and 10. This chapter takes place before Light gets invited to play against L in the tennis match. Anyway, I'll be posting another Death Note crossover which will have a normal amount of words in each chapter and explain stuff from more than one point of view. Yay. Won't be posting that one any time soon, writer's block is being a bitch and school is starting up again.**

 **Thank you for reading.**


	3. Chapter 3

A mangled corpse had been found on Wednesday.

The body was identified as that of the head of a secret criminal organization. The police hadn't made any of his records public through the news or the internet. A large hole was torn through the man's chest, suggesting that it had been impaled by something. The body lacked a few organs, as well as a some limbs. There was a gaping hole in place of the right eye, and one of the ears was missing. It was probably brutally torn off somehow, seeing as a line of flesh under the ear had also been torn off. But so far, the most disturbing thing about it was that it appeared to have been taken a bite out of from the area where the shoulder and neck met. Traces of saliva had been found, and it was also discovered that it didn't belong to a human. Or at least, an average human.

Light personally thought it was a gruesome sight to behold. L, on the other hand, thought that it was some crazy follower of Kira who had done the deed, seeing that the victim was an active criminal. He also guessed that this disturbed murderer was probably going to kill off the other criminals who Kira couldn't get to.

No one wanted to agree with him on that one. One brutal death was enough, thank you very much. Even if it was a criminal.

L's hypothesis could have been brought down easily, if it were not for another mangled mess of a corpse turning up a few days later. The large hole in the torso, missing parts and bite mark clearly showed that the killer of this murder and the first one was the same person. Or at least organization. Not to mention, this was a also a criminal who had been off records.

And a few days later, another similar murder case came up. And another. And another. And another.

L and Light had both managed to deduct that this serial killer was certainly a follower of Kira, and more of these cases were going to come up. Unfortunately for them, the only leads they had was that the killer somehow knew about the criminals and was trying to get Kira's attention, for some reason. It was obvious the person behind these murders didn't have Kira's power, but it was also obvious it had a more physical power of its own. They were smart enough to not leave evidence on the crime scenes, and yet they couldn't identify Kira by themselves.

Light Yagami sighed. If this turned out to be another Misa (albeit a lot more crazier), he was going to burst a vein.

* * *

 **It's pretty obvious who this killer is (for us, anyway), but what does he want with Kira? Does criminal flesh taste good or is it something else? Oh well. The late update is a result of me trying to work on three other crossovers at the same time. I know, 400 words aren't that hard to write, but school is killing me. Seriously, my hair is falling out because of stress. And here I was hoping I could cool white hair instead. Huh.**


	4. Chapter 4

Confinement and losing all memory of using the Death Note was not the way Light would have wanted to prove his innocence. At least, before Misa and Rem interrupted. He didn't know what kind of weird attachment Rem had with the blonde girl, but it sure was weird enough for the female shinigami to threaten to kill him if anything happened to Misa. That was just an irritable barrier between him and his utopia. He certainly had contemplated what situations he would have gone through if there hadn't been a second Kira (damn that shinigami who fell in love with her). Of course, he had lot of free time sitting handcuffed in a cell.

And when he decided that the time to give up the ownership to the Death had arrived, he had to remind himself once again that he was doing this so he won't get killed by a shinigami, _and_ prove that he wasn't Kira. Considering his plan followed out, the result would be perfect. He just had to depend on his luck, and on Rem to find someone suitable to the description he'd given.

Somehow, his plan had perfectly fit into place. Here he was, his hands on the Death Note once again with all his memories. Higuchi was dead and he had regained the possession of the notebook. Now all he had to do was get Misa to write down L's name in the notebook and proceed to his goal to become the God of Justice. With L out of the way, he would soon be unstoppable. Sure, Misa forgetting L's name and the grotesque murders were a small hindrance, but it wasn't anything he couldn't overcome.

The gruesome criminal killings hadn't ceased. The saliva found had been examined, and it was found to be rather... Unique. Autopsies revealed that the impalements in the bodies had been done by a tentacle-shaped structure. If the victims had fought back, it was clear they had lost miserably, for apart from the criminals' blood, there was no other type of blood to be found. Which was extremely strange, taking into account that they were rather dangerous, and it was found that there were always guns lying around. Fired bullets were also found, but either the victim had a terrible aim (which was doubtful for many reasons), or the murderer was wearing a bullet-proof suit which made the bullets simply bounce off.

At least it was clear that the murderer was in Tokyo and had no motives to leave any time soon. Which probably meant either they couldn't travel because of financial problems or just because they wanted to wipe out every criminal in Tokyo. Or maybe even that they were settled down here, which supported the theory that the killer had a job and family here or was a student. L had managed to deduce that the murderer was wary of being sighted, as the killings only happened at night. That theory led Light to deduce that the murderer had a strange, recognizable feature of some sort which was hard to hide.

Light, at first, banished the thought from his head. But the greatest deception is an obvious fact, and he couldn't deny it for long.

White hair just really stood out a lot.

* * *

 **Well. I'm kind of getting hyped. I'm a total white hair moe. One of the reasons I like Near. He's not arrogant- he's just awkward and doesn't know how to behave in front of people. Besides, I'd be arrogant if I caught a mass murderer too. Then again, I like Light and Near. I don't see why people hate them, really. Oh well. Anyway, I have a DNxTG crossover coming along. Yes, another. The new one's going to have chapters with thousands of words. Usually I prefer 1,000-3,000, but I'm making an exception. Just something about Death Note and Tokyo Ghoul which just makes you wanna keep writing. Anyways, later.**


	5. Chapter 5

"Whoever did this must be truly inhuman."

Light had decided to ignore those words. He didn't know in which way L referred to the murderer as 'inhuman', but he personally wanted to avoid that trail.

"Do you know of any possible suspect who could have committed such abominable murders, Light-kun?"

He gulped. He honestly didn't want to give out Kaneki as a suspect and get him involved, but there were these chances which had to be taken into consideration. One more person related to Kira, one more person who could mess up all of Light's plans. But then again, this could buy him just enough time to kill L, closing the whole case altogether. True, he'd have to catch this serial killer on his own, but at least he could manipulate the situations in a way which made the murderer seem plain crazy even if they did have a good reason to catch Kira's attention. If worse came to worst, he could get Misa to see their real name/s and write their name/s in the Death Note. All he would have to do was make sure quite some people saw them and try to not make the arrest completely private. A bit of media attention on it would be fine, too.

"Yes. Ken Kaneki, he goes to my college." Light couldn't exactly control those words. A suspect was a suspect. Besides, it's not like Kaneki had been a dear friend to him. "Was always a bit distant and mysterious, to be honest. He showed up one day and no one really knows his background, where he lives or anything like that."

"Interesting. Did he ever happen to display any superior physical abilities?"

"No, most of the time he was spotted simply reading and drinking coffee. He never seemed to consume anything other than coffee, though." Ah, yes. No one had ever seen Kaneki eating solid food for once. People had seen him drop a few brown sugar cubes into his coffee, but that's it. He never brought any lunch with him, nor did he ever bring snacks of any sort.

As L hummed in response, he searched up Ken Kaneki to get no results. Just a brief account of his academic report from To-Oh, but nothing else. There was no birth certificate, no family history, nothing. It seemed as if the man had simply popped up out of nowhere.

"Well, that's strange. It would be interesting if someone just appeared one day... That would be quite the inhuman power. Don't you think so, Light-kun?'

Light just nodded.

* * *

 **I'm not proud at all. At first, I wanted to do something different for this chapter, but then I figured that I kind of wanted to drag this on a little longer. Sorry guys, but L's dying before finding out the truth about Kaneki. This isn't a spoiler of any sort, this was L's last chapter in this fanfiction. Well then.**

 **Who's you favorite female Death Note character? Mine's Mello.**

 **I'm so sorry.**


	6. Chapter 6

Light stared at the sheaf of papers. On them were written notes. Not just any notes, but notes written by the Mangled-Corpse Kira.

Personally, he detested the fact that people named the murderer after himself. There was no proof regarding the fact that they u8sed a Death Note, they were probably just wannabes of Kira.

At least, that's what Light thought before he read the notes.

 _'_ _Kira. I know you re reading this, and I know you're not in a position where you can read this freely. You will, without a doubt, need to show this to the others on the investigation team. Unfortunately for you, once they read this, it's all over. I know who you are. I can see the shinigami who follows you._

 _For the safety of your identity, I have written several irrelevant notes which you will find beneath the actual notes. Destroy the originals after you've read through them, or keep them in a very safe place. Show the fake notes to the investigation team._

 _I am very sure you know who I am. It won't be necessary for you to kill me. It won't be possible for you to kill me, either. Tell you what- let us meet.'_

After that, the address to a coffee shop downtown was scrawled out. The note wasn't signed, but that was to be expected. Light heard Ryuk chuckle behind him.

"Are you going to go?"

Light glared at the shinigami. Obviously, he knew something about this, but he won't tell Light. The youth separated the original notes from the fake ones. There were less notes in the fake-notes pile compared to the original-notes pile. No heed was paid.

"Don't get me wrong, I have no idea why he can see me, but it might just have something to do with..." Ryuk trailed off.

No matter how hard he wished, Kira knew he couldn't threaten the shinigami into talking.

Sometimes, even things as powerful as the Death Note could be useless when it came to dealing with Reapers.

* * *

 **I have an inexplicable hatred for this chapter. I just do. It seems a lot of you didn't get that that Mello joke I made- but that's fine. I was wondering if Juuzou is albino. He has pale blonde hair and skin, not to mention reddish eyes. I can't help but suspect that. He looks more albino than Near. I find it rather strange that I'm drawn towards pale-haired anime characters. Said characters include Kaneki, Juuzou, Near and Arima.**

 **...Speaking of Arima, anyone excited for the Jack OVA?**


	7. Chapter 7

Light had expected that the meeting place was not really going to be in some cafe.

He had not expected, though, to be roughly dragged into an alley while walking.

At first, like any rational person, he had pried the arms off of him and took a fighting stance, prepared to face the violator. He froze when he caught a glimpse of white hair in the darkness of the alley.

 _A strange, recognizable feature, which was somewhat hard to hide..._

And it was clearly visible through the darkness. Each strand flipped brilliantly in the wind, ceasing the momentum around them. Then, Ken Kaneki stepped out of the shadows. He wasn't wearing an eyepatch.

A glowing red eye danced in an ocean of blackness.

A monster was meeting a monster. How ironic.

And, for the first time, Light saw the absolute serenity and sadness which filled his right, grey eye, and it clashed in the most ugly manner with his other eye, which was madness all on its own.

Light Yagami had always been perfect. Had Ken Kaneki always been so beautiful? His pale hands were the hands of a murderer, and they seemed to match perfectly with Light's very own. Each pair of eyes hid a tragedy which entwined the sense of self sacrifice and justice in each body. The only difference was that the auburn-haired man was a human who turned into a lying monster, but the white-haired man had turned into a monster who hid as a human.

In the end, neither of them was better than the other. Both of them were blinded by their goals which were actually their fears. Both of them had gone through torture to hold the power they now wielded. Both of them were flowers that had withered long ago, though they were still the most outstanding ones in sight.

Both of them had undergone a transformation- from human to monster. Except Kaneki seemed to have gone through one last change, one which could not be returned from.

Perhaps, the real reason Kaneki could see Ryuk was because he was a reaper himself.

* * *

 **Most people think that the pacing's too fast. Actually, I'm trying to follow the manga. Whereas L died halfway into the manga, he died three-fourths into the anime. The anime also left out a lot of stuff from the manga. And, whereas it's not as bad of an adaptation as Tokyo Ghoul (143 chapters are just not meant to fit into 24 episodes), I think it left out some really important character development which I will include in this. Light's insanity wasn't very well captured, and neither was Kaneki's. Anyway, I've already planned how I'm going to end this, and I have to say, it will be something to look forward to. Suggestions and theories are accepted and appreciated.**

 **I know most of you were looking forward to a detailed chapter, but I'm planning to postpone the details in the next chapter. I'm more for psychological insight than actual action. Besides. I'm not really very serious with this story. It's simply something I'm writing in spare time. So... Anyway, see you all next time.**


End file.
